What did you order or the post deliver? (Japanese N Gauge)

[Philphil]

5 hours ago, disturbman said:

Just picked up a package from my local post office and got surprised by how the bookcase was wrapped. A piece of thin protective wrapping held together by brown tape. Could see the bookcase through it. Quite a change from the usually careful packing I am used to from Japan.

 

 

On the plus side, it meant I did not had to go to the custom or pay taxes on the package. Wonder what triggers the Zoll, it seems pretty random, often based on the look of the package. The fastest delivery I ever had so far with buyee was with a set packed inside an Amazon box. Cleared the custom in Frankfurt in a matter of hours.

 

The model is a beauty, amazingly still came in one piece without visible damage to either the bookcase nor the set. ;) Now the question is how does it run? It is quite an old set.

 

Wow, I've never seen anything like that! Can I ask what it is?

[disturbman]

It is one of JR Hokkaido special DMUs, Kiha 59 Peppermint Express.

You can see a group shot of these consists here.

The Peppermint Express ran in the 90s. The same unit also ran as four-car Furano Express and Continental Express. MA made a model of these too.  The Peppermint Express is A1961. The Furano Express was released about a year or two ago. The others 12 years ago.

I definitely would love some more of these special consists. I like this train a lot more than the Yufuin no Mori.

[EH500 (12)]

On 22.3.2018 at 8:53 PM, defor said:

The EH500 I ordered off eBay arrived today so I at least can see how it looks with some Koki's while I wait for the rest of my starter items to arrive from Japan!

An EH500 is a good start into the hobby, I approve of that! 

[chadbag]

A Greenmax 103 set in blue (6 cars), a KATO 103 set in orange (8 cars), and some KoKi 110 I ordered arrived at my SIL's house in Kobe.  I've been using LINE to talk with her directly.   I hope the LINE bot that translates what I say into Japanese has done a good job :)

 

She said she'll send them and a whole ton of small things and some cars I sent to my MILs apartment next week.  I told her to use the cheapest method.  We'll see what happens.

 

[scotspensioner]

12 hours ago, disturbman said:

It is one of JR Hokkaido special DMUs, Kiha 59 Peppermint Express.

You can see a group shot of these consists here.

The Peppermint Express ran in the 90s. The same unit also ran as four-car Furano Express and Continental Express. MA made a model of these too.  The Peppermint Express is A1961. The Furano Express was released about a year or two ago. The others 12 years ago.

I definitely would love some more of these special consists. I like this train a lot more than the Yufuin no Mori.

I picked up a Tomix Furano Express pack secondhand a couple of years ago.Its noisy and the lights don't work at one end but I paid a very low price for it!

[Philphil]

On 3/22/2018 at 6:07 PM, defor said:

I think you’ll be fine- if anything the output voltage just might run a little high. General rule of thumb is almost all electronics since the mid 90’s is safe within a good 30+ volts range... that said, it’s a good thing too as a lot of places will have natural voltage drops and spikes that large if the grid’s overutilized or older.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good to know! I'm still a bit worried about using a Kato powerpack rated for 100V on 120V, the pack itself gets kind of warm when it's used, so that still kind of worries me. Maybe that's just normal? I don't have anything else to compare it to, so I don't really know...

[Suica]

Time for more Hokkaido stuff.

KiHa 261 series Super Soya

It's the early 6-car formation model. I wish it was the current formation but I gotta take what's available.

[Yavianice]

Time for more Hokkaido stuff.
KiHa 261 series Super Soya

It's the early 6-car formation model. I wish it was the current formation but I gotta take what's available.

Funny, I got the same one a few weeks ago ;)

[cteno4]

On 3/22/2018 at 3:49 AM, nscalestation said:

 

That was what I suspected at first.  As I have been adding some of the old Greenmax buildings into the Trovestar N Scale database I have noticed some of the boxes have a "Mokei Imports" sticker so that would seem to confirm that at least the Greenmax kits passed through Mokei at some point.  

 

Yeah for like 4 decades I think everything greenmax and tomix item sold in the us was probably imported by mokei and sold directly by him or to LHS. I actually sent away for the 4 page mimeographed price list as a kid from his little add in model railroader in the early 70s, just mail in the SASE! 

 

From what I remember most of mokei’s remaining inventory went to a private group that then ended up with a group of monks that were selling hobby stuff (hey some make beer others sell trains I guess), then that sold out to someone else and it may have been a hobby shop. A couple of friends actually ran the numbers to take over the inventory, but it was just too daunting. I think he did not sell the business as is as it was so much him and his very old connections that probably would not have translated (literally and figuratively) well. Seems every 6 months there is a little burp of greenmax kits and I’ve just attributed it to the many LHS that did business with mokei (LHS liked him as direct w.o huge markup and would do small orders and kept containers coming every couple of months) finally just getting rid of old stock that wasn’t selling for them anymore. Kleins did this a number of years back and luckily gave the club a very good price on about 20 greenmax kits.

 

jeff

[Claude_Dreyfus]

The latest offering from Tomytec arrived yesterday. This time it is a set of Nissans. The Gloria is a little out of place - being a good 20/30 years older than the rest. The X-Trail 4wd is particularly good. That's four more vehicles to add to the growing collection for display on the currently to be built layout!

[IST]

The re-released Kato Kirara sets has just arrived, so I had to try them.

 

     

 

 

 

And here is a small video including my T-trak modules:

 

 

Edited March 24, 2018 by IST
typo

[Kiha66]

7 hours ago, Philphil said:

Good to know! I'm still a bit worried about using a Kato powerpack rated for 100V on 120V, the pack itself gets kind of warm when it's used, so that still kind of worries me. Maybe that's just normal? I don't have anything else to compare it to, so I don't really know...

That's normal, so long as it's warm and not hot you should be fine.   It's just efficiency losses as the transformer converts wall voltage to 12v dc.  Same thing as the "brick" on your laptop charging cord heats up when charging the laptop.

[serotta1972]

2 hours ago, IST said:

The re-released Kato Kirara sets has just arrived, so I had to try them.

 

     

 

 

 

And here is a small video including my T-trak modules:

 

 

Wow, very nice Istvan! Love the modules and those Kirara’s are perfectly at home.

[nscalestation]

8 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yeah for like 4 decades I think everything greenmax and tomix item sold in the us was probably imported by mokei and sold directly by him or to LHS. I actually sent away for the 4 page mimeographed price list as a kid from his little add in model railroader in the early 70s, just mail in the SASE! 

 

Some of the younger folks might ask "What is SASE ?"

[gavino200]

3 hours ago, IST said:

The re-released Kato Kirara sets has just arrived, so I had to try them.

 

      

 

   

And here is a small video including my T-trak modules:

 

 

 

Nice train. Your modules look amazing! What kind of grass is that? Is that some kind of pre-made mat? It looks very real.

[cteno4]

1 hour ago, nscalestation said:

 

Some of the younger folks might ask "What is SASE ?"

 

sorry, Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. the olden days pre internet (I know for some that was forever ago or never in their lifetimes) to get a price list or small catalog they would have you send a self addressed stamped envelope to the shop for them to put the price list in to return to you... There were a few 2 page price list spreads in model railroader by the biggest mail order places were the usual way you could sort of figure out the general street pricing. smaller shops had small ads that didnt have a lot of pricing and you send away to ask for their price list.

 

I guess its why i dont mind SAL shipping, got use to waiting for things in the mail like this!

 

cheers

 

Jeff

[bill937ca]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

 

sorry, Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. the olden days pre internet (I know for some that was forever ago or never in their lifetimes) to get a price list or small catalog they would have you send a self addressed stamped envelope to the shop for them to put the price list in to return to you...

 

I won't admit to prehistoric practices!    Wasn't that in a past century?

Edited March 25, 2018 by bill937ca

[cteno4]

Dinos...

 

jeff

[gavino200]

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

 

sorry, Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. the olden days pre internet (I know for some that was forever ago or never in their lifetimes) .

 

Wow, I remember that from when I was a kid. Haven't heard it in years. It sounds so old-fashioned, yet so familiar.

[EH500 (12)]

Had some mail coming yesterday!

 

Some preorders from Modeltrainplus, Kiha40s and Kiha183 including the addon set, and a Kiha 261-1000 I got from Mandarake.

 

 

 

I also got some stuff for my modules.

[lighthouse]

Got 2 new ED79 from Kato (middle and right)

[EH500 (12)]

1 minute ago, lighthouse said:

Got 2 new ED79 from Kato (middle and right)

 

Nice, I have four ED79s in the mail too! 

[AllScales]

My Moha1 arrived! A bit of a heart failure moment as it wouldn’t go when I first put it on the track, but it’s just a loose connection now permanently fixed!

 

You can’t complain when it’s second hand.

[IST]

11 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Nice train. Your modules look amazing! What kind of grass is that? Is that some kind of pre-made mat? It looks very real.

 

Thanks! It is not a pre-made mat, a local hobby shop makes different types of grass (length, colour) similar to Noch products. For example this one.

[AllScales]

5 hours ago, IST said:

 

Thanks! It is not a pre-made mat, a local hobby shop makes different types of grass (length, colour) similar to Noch products. For example this one.

Those units look very nice, some might find themselves on the Hakone Tozan at some point... ;-)